let me finish tonight with this. america at its best roots for the underdog. it's the thing we like about watching on oscar night. we love it hen the little movie wins the big prize. i know that "lincoln" is the big movie of last year. it's about our favorite president, played by one of our greatest act, to daniel day lewis, directed by the great steven spielberg who gave us

jaws and indiana jones and schindler's list. but i'm rooting for silver linings playbook to win. i love. this it's about real people, people from down the street, people with problems. the widow of a policeman shot in the line of due duty. a young man suffering from illness, a mother who refuses to be down beat. it's a family held together by being a family. i look at this like my country. people who refuse to give up. people who refuse to give up on each other. silver linings playbook. if you have given up on going to the movies, go to this one. it will remind you not only of the way movies used to be, but what american movies can be, truly great. thanks for being with us. "the ed show" with ed schultz starts right now. >> good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show" from new york. a massive storm is hammering 50 million americans tonight. a manhunt is under way for a california cop killer. bill o'reilly is digging himself into a deeper hole. bill clinton rallies house democrats. he has the plan.

karl rove attacks ashley judd again. and bieber mania is alive and well here at 30 rock in new york city. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. the northeastern portion of the united states is still recovering from the devastation of sandy, and tonight the region is being hit by another powerful storm. the massive nor'easter could be one of the worst in history. well, you've got governors declaring states of emergency in new york, connecticut, and massachusetts, along with rhode island and maine. in boston, the city is the epicenter of two storms which could break boston's all-time snowstorm record of 27.6 inches. up and down the northeastern coast, between 1 and 3 feet of snow is expected to fall. forecasters warned of blizzard conditions including wind gusts of up to 75 miles per hour. this could cause widespread power outages this evening.

the national guard was activated in states of connecticut, massachusetts, new york, of course to help with emergency management. the storm comes. ironically, almost 35 years to the day after the blizzard of 1978. the catastrophic snowfall and heavy winds caused more than a half billion in damage and claimed dozens of lives. as people rushed to stay ahead of the storm, many travelers found themselves stranded. 4,740 flights have been canceled through tomorrow. for more on this, let's go to nbc news correspondent rehema ellis. great to have you with us tonight. it's been a busy day out there at la guardia. what is the latest? >> reporter: the latest is here at the new york city area airports, ed we had some 1700 flights canceled as part of that 4700 you mentioned. and what you see behind me is basically an airport, one of the busiest airports in the country on a friday night, it is

virtually empty. this is unheard of. and it is the threat of the storm that has gotten everybody to move out of here. and the airlines trying to encourage passengers to do the right thing. and that is change their plans. they waived the cancellation fees, hoping passengers would do that. i have to tell you, i think people got the memo, ed. >> was very light here at the airport as we saw cancellation, one after the other, all day today. the busiest part of the day here for folks at the airport was very early in the morning. i think some people were trying to get ahead of the storm and to get out on those early flights. right now virtually shut down. the airport was nice enough, they got about 60 cots that are set up on another level, but only about 20 people are occupying those cots. we talked to one woman earlier today. she is on vacation, traveling from nova scotia. she had gone to cambodia. and she is here because she said she spent all her vacation money, doesn't have any money left to be in a hotel. so she is spending the night in

the airport. they're going to be taking those snowplows and removing equipment all night once the storm really hits. and trying to clean the planes and trying to clean the runways, to see if they can get traffic up and moving again some time on sunday, if not sooner. it all depends on what the storm here in our area actually turns out to be. ed? >> all right, rehema ellis at la guardia airport tonight. thank you so much for joining us. the blizzard conditions are expected to cause flooding all along the coastal areas. many of these cities and towns are still recovering from super storm sandy. this was one of the worst natural disasters in u.s. history, and it happened less than four months ago. sandy took more than 250 lives and caused more than $74 billion in damage. many of the people displaced by sandy are still without homes. for more on this, let's go to msnbc meteorologist bill cairns. bill, it's just getting started. how bad is it going to get? >> right now, ed, until the next

four or five hours, this storm is going to go from a novelty to all of the sudden wow, i really hope i don't lose power. >> hear cracking of tree limbs in my yard. that's the type of things that are starting to happen now. and for the next four hours, will only get worse. they pinpoint who was at the biggest risk of losing power. losing power in the middle of winter, in the middle of a blizzard is horrible. it could be a week before the power gets turned on, and it's freezing cold. it's not like in the summer with a hurricane. at least it's warm that we're watching the heaviest snows now, all from rhode island. this blue band, this is intense snow. we've had reports of thunder and lightning in rhode island and connecticut and long island. it's literally a thunderstorm producing snow. so you can imagine the snowfall rates are about 3 to 4 inches an hour, literally, between boston to providence, all the way down to areas of long island. over the next four hours, you can expect to get a foot of snow. picture that a foot of snow in four hours. and now the winds are howling. this is when the trees are starting to crack. this is when the power outages are beginning. we're seeing wind gusts now.

boston just went to 52. 56 in newport. we show the pick dplers eastetu eastern mass. possibly of 60 to 70-mile-per-hour winds in eastern mass, including all of cape cod. on top of that, going to have about 1 or 2 feet of snow. but no one will be able to measure because it will be blowing all over the place. this almost looks like a hurricane at this point, it's such an intense storm. there is the center, going to go right off of cape cod. the snow totals, this is what makes the storm historic. the potential of 2 to 3 feet, especially, ed, the band i just showed you setting up from connecticut through rhode island to boston. the next four hours are going to be incredible. stay inside, look out your window, and cross your fingers you don't lose power. >> bill, what are you anticipating for folks hit by hurricane sandy just four months ago? how bad are they going to get it? >> we did catch a little bit of a break with the jersey shore on this one. the high tide cycle that we went through this morning we had some minor flooding, really not that bad.

we're going through another one right now. but the winds have already backed offshore. they're not onshore anymore the jersey coastline. so that's going to keep the water levels down that was the good news for the jersey shore. but the people on long island that suffered the power outages for weeks after sandy, those are the ones i'm most concerned with because they're most hikely to lose power in the next couple of hours. >> lots of conversation about the 1978 storm. what is the comparison here? >> i mean, that's kind of the benchmark. over the last three decades, especially for the boston to providence area, i mean, this one could go toe to toe with it. we'll have to wait and see tomorrow morning when it's all said and done. i think we're more prepared now. communication is better. social media, we have more media. and you know, these pictures of the people stranded in the roads, these governors are on top of this. they told everyone off the roads by noon today to avoid these pictures that you're seeing right here. and if it wasn't for those, everyone getting out the word, we would be seeing pictures like that. the timing helped too, ed, mostly an overnight storm that one hit during the day in the morning. >> high winds have got to be a

concern here. snow is one thing. but when you put 50-mile-per-hour winds behind it you have visibility issues. be you also have power line issues. and then obviously the temperature as far as the icing on the lines can bring the lines and polls down awful fast. how big of a concern is that with these conditions? >> you probably notice in the new york city area, ed, yourself, it was warmer earlier today. we had rain, the sleet and stuff mixed on top of it. the temperature was around 32. so the heavy, wet snow fell first. and now the temperatures are going to fall and the winds are going to pick up. so the heavy, wet snow that accumulated earlier isn't going to blow harmlessly off the trees of the power lines. it's sticking to it. it's probably already frozen to it. it's going to increase the power outages with this storm. not as bad as sandy, of course. probably not as bad as the nor'easter we had right after sandy. as far as blizzards go in the middle of winter, this will have significant power outages, likely in the hundreds of thousand, possibly up to a million if it gets bad enough, especially near boston. >> the model, is more bad weather expected to follow this storm? >> we get a little bit of a

moderation. temperatures will be near 40. we'll do a small amount of melting there is a potential, potential seven, eight days now for another east coast storm. let's hope we're wrong about that. >> i'll tell you what, are we going to get any kind of a wave storm surge here? are the shorelines going get hit in any type of intensity at all? >> yeah. for people that aren't familiar with the eastern mass coastline and cape cod bay, very susceptible to the storm surges, that's the area that is located right in here. 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning is the key. that's when we expect the high tide cycle. that's when we expect the highest storm surge. areas linebacker plum island which is a little tiny island, but homes are very vulnerable. sooner or later they're going to fall into the ocean. expect a 4 to 5-foot surge. compare that to sandy. sandy had a storm surge 10 to 14 feet in some cases. we're literally half of that. because there are some vulnerable homes. the storms have been eating away at the coastline, some storms are going to fall into the

ocean. but they're vulnerable homes. >> every time i see a storm like this, i think of the movie "the perfect storm." . >> you can't help not to, right? >> and we did have a couple of different elements really build this thing up, didn't we? >> oh, yeah. sandy was a hurricane that turned into just this super storm. it merged with another storm. this is one of the same scenarios where we saw a storm literally -- all everyone on the east coast got the rain this morning that was piece one. the second piece was the foot of snow that fell in michigan last night. and those two are merging and meeting south of new england. and that's your ingredients for the blizzard. >> bill cairns, thanks for joining us tonight. joining us now from boston is weather channel's jim cantore. jim, how bad is it where you are tonight? >> well, it's pretty bad. everything was going along pretty swimmingly in terms of getting people off the roads today at noon. the governor doing a great job yesterday and just being adamant about that, clear direction. here is what we're going to do. get everybody off at noon.

shut down the mass transit at 3:30. no wavering on that. that was done today. and the good news is nobody is out there trapped on the roads. the bad news is we're still going to have issues here because the worst of the storm is just coming in now to southern parts of new england. and we'll continue to move north towards the boston area. we've had gusts to strong tropical storm-force winds, 65 miles per hour or greater on the eastern bank massachusetts. and we expect that wind energy is going to be coming in here as we go through the next 12 hours or so. to give you a quick idea what we've got, kind of using this post, this is a solid 6 inches of snow in through here that is being compacted. it's a very heavy, very, very heavy, wet snow. it's easy to make a snowman out of, easy to make a snowball out of too. you've got all this, now, sitting on the trees, just waiting for the wind. as the wind comes in tonight, what we expect to be the worst situation is power loss. we're going to have a lot of power loss tonight from long island, through connecticut,

rhode island, massachusetts, possibly even southern new hampshire and on into maine, depending how far west that wind gets. right now 25 million people under the blizzard warnings. and that means sustained winds for three hours or more of 35 miles per hour. certainly a rough night for some. a night for the dogs for some. either way you slice it, a good night to stay inside. >> it certainly is. we could see millions of people without power in the coming hours. jim cantore, thanks for your time tonight. we appreciate that we have a lot more coming up on tonight's "ed show." stay with us. our guys are making great progress at this point, but the search continues. >> it's not rambo, it's real. the manhunt continues in california. up next, new developments from big bear mountain and from los angeles, where the lapd headquarters remains on lockdown. then karl rove loses his cool over ashley judd on national television. bill clinton is back, giving direction to the democrats. we'll talk to the justin bieber

fans braving a monster storm to get "saturday night live" tickets. and the mayor of cable news gets caught lying to the folks again. >> have you heard anything on nbc about the drones? >> not yet. >>. no. >> tonight we'll expose bill o'reilly's gross deception about msnbc. e it. we all work remotely so this is a big deal, our first full team gathering! i wanted to call on a few people. ashley, ashley marshall... here. since we're often all on the move, ashley suggested we use fedex office to hold packages for us. great job. [ applause ] thank you. and on a protocol note, i'd like to talk to tim hill about his tendency to use all caps in emails. [ shouting ] oh i'm sorry guys. ah sometimes the caps lock gets stuck on my keyboard. hey do you wanna get a drink later? [ male announcer ] hold packages at any fedex office location. [ male announcer ] when we built the cadillac ats from the ground up to be the world's best sport sedan... ♪

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coming up, bill o'reilly is caught in a massive lie, and he is trying to weasel out of it. i have lots to say about this one coming up. a former police officer and marine is on a latest revenge killing. the latest on massive manhunt in california is next. you can listen to my radio show on sirius xm radio monday through friday noon to 3:00 p.m. share your thoughts tonight on facebook and twitter using the #edshow. we're coming right back. to outlast your day. [ man ] action! wow! [ female announcer ] secret outlast clear gel is better than the next leading invisible solid on white marks.

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thanks for staying with us tonight. this story sounds like it's right out of the movies, but it's dangerously real tonight. hundreds of police officers are braving snowy conditions in the california mountains to find christopher dorner. dorner is a 33-year-old ex-police officer and war veteran wanted for killing three people and wounding two others over the past few days. officers say dorner has declared war on the police force, and they're worried he won't stop killing until he is dead. dorner has covered a massive area across southern california over the past 72 hours. police say dorner's rampage started in irvine where he shot and killed keith lawrence and michelle quan. quan is the daughter of a former

lapd captain and may have been seeking revenge by targeting her. police picked up dorner's trail three days later in san diego, almost 83 miles south of irvine. dorner was spotted trying to steal a boat. so police launched a door-to-door search and came up empty. dorner popped up again 100 miles north in riverside, where he allegedly ambushed two police officers. one officer died and the other was wounded before dorner vanished again. eight hours later and 52 miles northwest, police in big bear lake discovered a burning truck like dorner's. police found some footprints which disappeared into the trees. tonight more than 100 police officers, fbi agents, and s.w.a.t. team members are searching eight square miles in the mountains of big bear lake, california. police had to put chains on their armored personnel carriers. and look at this. s.w.a.t. team members are riding in sno-cats so they can act seth

says 200 cabins in remote locations. so far there is still no sign of dorner, and police say he could be anywhere. dorner may be carrying armor-piercing bullets, so police are on heightened alert. we're covering this story from several angles tonight. this massive hunt, including a profile of this dangerous suspect. first, let's turn to nbc's miguel almaguer who is live outside lapd headquarters, which i understand has been shut down. tell us about the new surveillance photos investigators have just released. >> good evening, ed. you paint a descriptive picture what is going out across this region there is really a heightened sense of awareness at lapd. the entrances and the exits are heavily guarded. we're told that snipers have been in the area, are at times on the rooftops, protecting this facility. as you mentioned about an hour ago, law enforcement officials released some surveillance photos of the suspect. they were taken in late january

as he was working his way in a local hotel. this is before the shootings, but they are recent, what police believe are the most recent photos of the suspect. he certainly does look very similar to other photos we have seen. so no major difference in his description. he is wearing civilian clothes, as opposed to many of the clothes we railroad showing you, which he is wearing the army fatigues. police are circulating the pictures around, not just to the media, but also on flyers to the local region, telling folks this is the man you want to be on the lookout for. as you mentioned, a man who police say is a former police officer and is now an accused cop killer, who has already killed three people, ed. >> miguel, are they confident that he is in that big bear mountain area? >> we know a short time ago officers up in big bear area held a press conference. they said they are getting close to wrapping up their search. they say they do not now believe that their suspect is in that area, but they want to be very thorough before they clear that area.

officers we're told will be up there for a few more hours, likely through nightfall, about 100 tactical officers sweeping through big bear which is very close to ski resort. they went door to doorknock on cabins, making sure their suspect was not hold up in any of the cabins. as a precaution, officers will remain up there for the next couple hours before coming down the mountain, ed. >> and i understand that police will not release the name of the riverside police officer who was killed in fear of rote buetribuo the family members this guy is hunting? >> the veteran of the force sore some 11 years, we know has a young family. we know he was married, family man and father. that's all we know about it. his superior officer says they

don't want to release his name because they believe the suspect is known to hunt not just police officer and law enforcement officials, but also members of their family. so for that reason, they don't want to release the officer who was killed, his name or even the actual area that he patrols for fear of retribution, because as you know, the suspect is still at large. >> all right. miguel almaguer, great to have you with us tonight. thank you for that report. >> nice to be with you, ed. now let's turn to clint van zandt, former fbi profiler and msnbc criminal analyst. clint, what are we dealing with here tonight? is this a well-trained rambo-type missionary? >> i hate to give him that much credit, ed, but unfortunately, he deserves it. as you and i talked about it on your radio show today, this guy appears to be a narcissistic psychopath. when you read his writings and his 12-page or so manifesto, i mean, he starts out addressing it to america, as if we all

should be paying any attention to him, which unfortunately we are doing on national television. but then he guess on to talk about challenges he's had since he was a child, how he was -- how he was oppressed, how other people put him down. his ultimate goal was to be a police officer. he achieved that, only to lose it within three years because of allegations that he was -- that he lied. but he still -- and he still held on toe that rank of naval lieutenant. and that still met his sense of self-esteem and self-worth. but the navy now has let him go as of february 1st, he is no longer in the navy. he didn't make lieutenant commander. so the navy basically kicked him out, let him go out of the navy. he blames the lapd not only for firing him, but for perhaps passing that information on to the navy and therefore the navy got rid of him too. so he has been terminated by the

police department. he has been terminated by the navy. and now he is out perhaps as the ultimate terminator, taking human lives. >> your thoughts on the probability of catching him in the near future. >> well, ed, last night when he -- when we found the truck had been torched, realize this is a smart, educated guy. he goes down to san diego, allegedly to steal a boat. indicates that he wants to go to mexico. ed, he drops his wallet with his badge in it. come on, this guy is smarter than that. he left it so we would find it. he goes up to big bear, drops his car off and sets it on fire, almost putting spotlights on saying now i'm up here. this guy is trying to make us look left, make us look right. ed, if he would is a been up in big bear mountain last night, it got to about 15 or 20 degrees. if this guy was carrying guns, ammo, and street clothes and

walking through the mountains, 275 pounds, he would have started sweating, he would have got hypothermia. had he stayed outside, he would have died. if police say he is not in any of the cabins up there, and they know that for sure, he either had a switch car up there, or somehow he stole or hijacked a car and left that mountain area. and whatever he did, ed, he is probably one of the more dangerous fugitives that law enforcement has looked for in a long time. he knows weapons. he knows police and military tactics. he has guns. he has proven the ability to shoot and kill. and he says he doesn't care if he dies. that's a terrible deadly combination. >> clint van zandt, thanks for your insight tonight. i appreciate it so much. the drone story exposed. the mayor of cable news in a big way. i'll tear into that story next. big bill clinton turns on the charm down in virginia. this could be a big key for

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welcome back to "the ed show." no, we're not playing the liars poker tonight. this government memo obtained by nbc news has bill o'reilly i mean all mixed up. you see, on wednesday, bill o'reilly claimed that nbc news did not cover the president's drone program. we should point out when o'reilly means nbc news, he also means this network, msnbc. >> remember the outcry about water boarding?

>> sure. >> you know, everybody jumping up and down, nbc news, i thought they were going to melt down over there. you heard anything on nbc about the drones? >> not yet. >> you haven't heard anything over there about this. neither have i. neither has my staff. we haven't heard anything. but we heard a lot about waterboarding, but nothing about drone strike. >> so bill o'reilly and his staff must not be following the news cycle, because on monday, nbc news obtained this justice department memo. it lays out the legal case for using drones to kill americans overseas suspected of terrorism. well, the night before o'reilly's bogus claim, this was the lead story on "nbc nightly news." >> on our broadcast tonight, an nbc news exclusive. the president's drone war. tonight the government document that lays out the case for killing americans who are suspected of terrorism overseas. >> emphasis exclusive there, bill. you didn't have it there first. the drone story was also covered here on msnbc and originally

broken monday night on "the rachel maddow show." see, o'reilly knew he was wrong. last night he came up with some lame excuse. >> i put forth over at nbc news and other media places. they were hysterical over waterboarding. but muted over president obama's drone attacks, at least until yesterday. >> nice try, bill. msnbc was critical over the use of torture during the bush administration, but this network also has a record of holding the obama administration accountable. here is a clip of "the ed show" on tuesday night, the day before o'reilly's original claim. >> i have to say as an american citizen, we are all entitled to due process under the law. and this document gives the president the ability to act as judge, injury, and executioner. i'm troubled by it. it doesn't meet the moral or constitutional standard that we expect of any administration. >> meanwhile, let's take a look

at the way fox news covered the water boarding story that bill is talking about back in 2009. >> khalid sheikh mohamud i understand was waterboarded 183 times. does anyone care about that? >> what bush did. >> exactly. >> you disappoint me. you know better. >> i would have dunked that guy in the water a thousand times to save your life. >> have you ever been water boarded? >> no, but ollie north has, and i talked to him about it. >> would you consent to being water boarded so we could get the truth out of you? >> sure. >> can we water board you, or are you busy on sunday? >> i'll do it for charity. >> it's important to know that sean hannity never had the guts to be waterboarded. as for o'reilly, bottom line, he was dead wrong on both claims. o'reilly's gut told him, well, he had to say something. but what he said he did without checking the facts. and he was wrong. it's a pattern over at fox news. and it's starting to hurt their credibility. you see a new ppp poll shows 46%

of voters do not trust fox news. that's at an all-time high. the american people know fox news is not fair and balanced. they are unreliable and wrong. bill clinton, the secretary of planning, is back with the democrats. >> if you're going to stir up storm -- it's important to turn -- not to give up on anybody, to talk to them. >> up next, the big panel on bill clinton's fiery speech to democrats. bieber fever breaks out during a blizzard, and our cameras are there. >> let's get to work! and karl rove is launching brand-new attacks on ashley judd. >> this is just the opening story. this is the opening act. >> i'll ask howard fineman why bush's brain is running scared. ♪

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it is an ongoing enterprise. >> that of course former president bill clinton rallying the troops at the house democrats' annual retreat in virginia earlier today. the president, clinton, he dispensed a healthy dose of political wisdom, and some tough love as well. the former president warned the crowd not to write off the republican party, despite the gop's current state of affairs. . >> it's easy to see with that. the strategy of theirs is not necessarily guaranteed to fail. >> clinton warned the de dems not to rely on demographics alone and americans' growing diversity does not guarantee a democratic majority. >> we should not give up on our ability, particularly when these periods when we're not in the heat of the election to begin a conversation with people who are not as extreme as a lot of the candidates they voted for in the republican party. >> clinton hit the republicans'

hypocrisy on the budget noting the party only likes austerity when democrats are president. >> here is the dilemma. we do have a long-term debt problem, but that doesn't mean that austerity now is the right response. >> the former president also touched on policy. he urged the lawmakers to tackle immigration reform as soon as possible and encourage them to own obama care. >> we democrats own the health reform issue now for good or ill. we had it. we did it. and there is a lot of good things in that bill. but it really matters how it's implemented. >> lots to talk about tonight. let's turn to john nichols, washington correspondent of the nation magazine. also with us this evening goldie taylor of the goldie taylor project and mike papantonio. urging the dems to go on the

offense when it comes to policy. good advice? what do you think? >> exceptionally good advice. the republican party is off message right now. they're struggling with themselves. they're actually under karl rove organizing against one another. and so it's a good message. and it's especially good if he focused on that issue of austerity, saying the democratic party should be the party of growth, not the party of cuts. >> goldie, if the democrats can't get immigration reform done before the midterms, how big of a loss will that be? >> i think it's a real problem. and it will be a crisis in leadership. not in modern times have we had a former president be in this kind of position to be able to counsel his party in the way that bill clinton has. i think it is the right message. i think it is dead-on. and you're absolutely right. we need comprehensive immigration reform before the mid terms. if not, republicans are going to have a leg up going in. >> mike, you know, looking at the way it's unfolding here early in the second term we hear a lot about guns. we hear a lot about immigration reform.

what about the middle class? what is going to be on the table for the middle class this what do the democrats have to do? >> well, i think the whole message goes to what the whole message needs, and that is a little bit of relief after this last go-around. he is trying to tell the democratic base quit being this party that is so willing to run away from real issues. don't budge on the issues. stand for something. do something. the democrats have had a hard time doing for so long. i think it was a great message. and the middle class ought to be very glad to hear that, because he is telling that my people are with you. they're going to stay with you. and i hope you have some people that will believe what he had to say. we have to stand for something. >> you know, goldie, the former president's advice on firearms was to stay on message and keep going. how much can the democrats get? >> i think it's dead-on. i think at the end of the day, you know, democrats have to buck up and get a little bit of bravado about this and understand what is really at stake. if we can't really honestly talk about banning assault weapons,

if we can't honestly talk about banning, you know, those high capacity clips, if we can't honestly talk about closing the loophole and things like the universal background check, i think that's a real problem for democrats if they can't stand on the principles that they claim to have. >> how important, john nichols, it is going to be for this man, bill clinton, to be an ambassador to lead the way for hillary clinton? or is that even necessary at this point? >> it's not necessary for him to lead the way for hillary clinton. in fact, when he tried to in 2008, he didn't do all that good a job. bill clinton's elder statesman role is the key one here. and he is, again, he is most well regarded on economics. and when he went in there and said we don't need austerity right now, that i hope is the message that democrats take in, because they're going to go into a lot of big fights over all sorts of fiscal and debt issues. and i hope they'll keep bill clinton's message in mind. >> well, another policy as we just brought up a moment ago was the gun control issue.

the president didn't shy away from that. this is mr. clinton urging democrats not to shy away from the subject, and now is the time. >> i see this whole gun issue as an opportunity not a toxic land mine. but it depends on how you do it. >> mike, is that a political jump right there? because back in '94 when they passed the assault weapons ban, some democrats paid for it at the polls. >> well, what bill clinton knows is that the last cycle, the nra spent $13 million on their clients. they had a 1% success rate. he knows that between 2004 and 2010, they had just over a 1% success rate. and he knows the american people are with him. it's very sound advice. i hope democrats will listen to him and not be their traditional democrat and budge and give in on this very important issue that could be a winner for him. >> well, a bipartisan group of senators are in talks about background checks. goldie, that possible? i mean, i think if they can get,

you know, to close the gun show loophole, and if they can get extensive background checks, comprehensive background checks, that's probably achievable. the assault weapons ban and the magazine, that might not get there. what do you think? >> you know, i think that we're in a different day than we were back when the first assault rifle ban was passed. we had some democrats in the south who were on the fence, frankly, because they lived in very tenuous districts. that's not true today. and so i think you're right. you know, the closing the loophole may be the only thing that is achievable during this time. but that's only true because strong democrats, moderate republicans, which there aren't very many anymore simply won't stand up like they should. >> the middle of the country, people just don't like the feeling that hey, the government is coming and telling me i got to do something. this is a tough issue for rural democrats, isn't it? >> it's always a tough issue. but it's not an impossible one. and remember, bill clinton, again, the guy we were talking

about, bridged an awful lot of these gaps back in the '90s. i think democrats can still do it. but the key to it is to remember that you have to talk to folks with respect. i frankly think it was beneficial to president obama to have a picture go out of him skeet shooting. and i do think it's important for democrats to say they don't want to take away guns. they want to do sensible regulations that most gun owners favor. always going to that message i think works. >> all right. john nichols, goldie taylor, mike papantonio, great to have you with us on the big panel tonight. thank you so much. >> thanks, ed. people are braving the storm of the century to see this guy? you can't make this stuff up. stay with us. man ] my boyfriend and i were going on vacation,

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sue nichols asks why can't we ask? republicans don't have a problem messing with women's health? and brian o'keefe writes personally i would like him to become the gop's next biggest loser in 2016. go tower facebook right now and join in on the conversation. and please like the ed show. we love it when you do that when you are there. coming up, howard fineman says karl rove is done? wow. i got to disagree that. howard and i are going to talk about that coming up. stay with us. ♪ vicks dayquil powerful non-drowsy 6-symptom cold & flu relief. ♪ no matter what city you're playing tomorrow. [ coughs ] [ male announcer ] you can't let a cold keep you up tonight. ♪ vicks nyquil powerful nighttime 6-symptom cold & flu relief. ♪ powerful nighttime 6-symptom cold & flu relief. i have obligations. cute tobligations, but obligations.g.

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welcome back to "the ed show." ah, there is always room for hearty folks. you're looking at a shot of rockefeller center here in new york city. it's 32 degrees outside, snowing and winds are gusting at about 22 miles per hour. and there are about 100 people outside waiting for tickets to see justin bieber tomorrow night on "saturday night live." ed show producers caught up with a few of these devoted fans earlier tonight, just to see how

they're hanging on. >> yay justin, we love you! >> justin! >> so worth it! >> how long have you guys been waiting out here? >> hours. >> 2:00 to 3:00. >> it's so cold. >> we forgot. our brains froze. >> how long would you guys wait in a blizzard to see justin bieber? >> forever. my whole life. until my 21st birthday. >> forever until he came out. >> for a million years. i love him so much. >> if we got in tomorrow, then i would probably rye. just thinking about it gets me emotional. >> it would be hard to hold it together. >> what is it like to stand out here for justin bieber tonight? >> oh, it's just wonderful. i would do anything for my daughter. >> we were singing, and he brought us donuts and soup and pizza! yay. >> and hot chocolate. >> he is making my dreams come true. ♪ if i was your boyfriend, i'd never let you go ♪ >> clear clear. >> rain, hail, sleet or snow.

"saturday night live" normally hands out their tickets on saturday, but because of the storm, fans are going to be able to get their tickets by 11:00 tonight. so they're paying the price of being rewarded for it. coming up, wait until you see what karl rove is saying about ashley judd. now. keep it right here. [ kitt ] you know what's impressive? a talking car. but i'll tell you what impresses me. a talking train. this ge locomotive can tell you exactly where it is, what it's carrying, while using less fuel.

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strike on actress and rumored potential kentucky senate candidate ashley judd. the pac spent $10,000 on an online ad attacking judd's political views and painting her as a hollywood liberal. all this despite judd's jump into politics is nothing but speculation at this point. but that's not stopping karl rove from going forward with a sustained attack. >> poor ashley judd. are you making fun of her? >> we are making fun of her. we're making fun of her by using her comments. we don't want to have happen in kentucky what happened in minnesota, where al franken knew i need to have a short campaign. i don't want people to pay a lot of attention to me. i don't want them to know a lot about me except i'm a celebrity and a nice guy. she doesn't want a long campaign, because this is just the opening story. this is the opening ad. she has said a bunch of stuff that the people of kentucky when they hear about it are not going to like. and we're going to lay it out in

plenty of time for people to get a handle on it. >> and of course, after an embarrassing show in the 2012 election, it looks like karl rove has decided to just get out there early. but whatever the motivation is, it sure says a lot about mitch mcconnell's standing in kentucky. joining me tonight, howard fineman, nbc news political analyst and editorial director of "the huffington post" media group. howard, great to have you with us. i want to point out first about ashley judd. you were out in front of this. you were saying for a long time she was going to be talked about as a candidate. >> well, i can reveal the truth here tonight, ed, which is i began my so-called career at as a reporter in kentucky. i spent five years in kentucky. i consider it my home away from home. and i keep in touch with politics there. and a number of months ago, a very prominent political figure in kentucky said hey, what do you think about ashley judd? and i said you got to be

kidding. and they said no. she is smart. she knows the state. she loves politics. and mitch mcconnell is weak. so yeah, i've been interested in this all along. i'm still not certain by any means that she going to run. >> sure. >> what is fascinating in this context is karl rove is spending a lot of time on this, trying to get attention he is still relevant right this minute it seems to me. >> i think he is using ashley judd, because he wants visibility as well. >> yes. >> and he wants to get people excited. what about that? >> well, sure. and listen, karl had a tough 2012. he is a fighter, he is a resilient guy. he is going to do anything he can to stay on fox and keep collecting money for his pac. >> well, the title "karl rove is done", that's quite a statement. why do you believe that? why do you think his time is up? >> well, what i meant by saying that is that i reviewed his history. and showed how he went from being sort of a mainstream moderate republican when he

started out with richard nixon in the '70s as the head of the college republicans, which is where carl started, to being the architect not only of the bush campaign of george w. bush's campaign, but really of the bush republican party. there was pretty much a consensus, not total, but pretty solid consensus among conservatives and mainstream republicans in the republican party that george w. bush and karl rove put together starting in about 1999 and through george bush's presidency. what i meant by karl rove being done is not that he isn't a shrewd operator, not that american crossroads isn't going to spend a lot of money, not that he isn't going to be involved in a lot of campaigns, but he is not going to be the architect of a new republican party anymore, i don't think. i think his time has passed for that kind of thing because the party is too divided and the tea party is too angry. >> but the core of the republican party, the majority of the republican party is not fringe. i mean, i just think the fringe

is giving them all kinds of problems. and i think rove is cagey. he is the kind of guy that doesn't make the same mistake twice. >> right. >> and the connection to the bush family. >> right. >> if jeb bush were to step out and say i'm going to run, i think karl rove would be one of his first phone calls. >> i'll grant you that. i think, ed, i'm not sure that jeb is quite as close to karl as w. is and was. but you may be right. i'm not sure that jeb is going to run. obviously marco rubio is out there. in kentucky derby terms, rubio is fast out of the gate. i did see jeb bush the other week in an event. it did strike me he hasn't ruled out the idea of maybe rung. and i know a lot of big money in florida and elsewhere around the country want jeb to run. >> sure. >> i'm not sure he is going to do it. if he doesn't do it, i don't know who karl's horse is going to be in 2016. >> i think the big job for karl rove is understanding how to